Pairing a Bridge

Pairing connects a running bridge to your community. It takes an admin on each side: one on the other service to start it, and one in Colibri to confirm it.

The examples on this page use the Colibri bridge for Discord. Other bridges follow the same steps with their own command for getting a code.

Pair a bridge

Add the Discord Bot to your Server.
On the other service, ask the bridge for a pairing code. In Discord, a member with the Manage Server permission runs:
```
/colibri connect
```
The bridge replies with an eight-character code, visible only to you. The code works once and expires after 10 minutes.
In Colibri, open your community’s settings and select Bridges. You need the Manage Community permission.
Enter the code under Pairing code and select Look up. Colibri shows the bridge’s handle, the service it connects to, and the name of the server on that service.
Check that these match the bridge and server you expect, then select Connect.

The bridge is now registered with your community. It relays nothing until you link channels.

Link channels

After pairing, the bridge reports the rooms it can see on the other service. Each Colibri channel links to at most one room.

In Bridges, find the bridge you paired.
Under Linked channels, pick a room for each Colibri channel you want to relay. Leave a channel on Not linked to keep it out.
To bring over earlier messages, pick how far back to go in the select next to the room: Last day, Last 7 days, Last 30 days or All history. Leave it on Don’t import to relay new messages only.
Select Save links.

The bridge picks up the new links straight away. From Discord, run /colibri status to list the channels the bridge relays.

If the list of rooms is empty, the bridge hasn’t reported any yet. Check that it’s running and that it can see the channels on the other service.

In Discord, the bot needs these permissions in each linked channel:

View Channel, Send Messages, Read Message History and Manage Webhooks, to relay messages
Add Reactions, to relay reactions
Create Public Threads, Send Messages in Threads and Manage Threads, to relay threads
Manage Messages, for Mirror moderation

Import history

A linked channel can import the room’s earlier messages. Pick a range next to the room and select Save links. The bridge imports the messages oldest first, along with the public threads opened in that range, while new messages keep flowing.

A bar under the channel shows how far the import has got, with the number of messages so far. The bridge picks up where it stopped after a restart. If an import fails, pick a range again to start a new one. Messages that were already imported or relayed are skipped.

Imported messages keep the time they were sent and appear in the channel’s history as they arrive. They don’t notify anyone or mark the channel as unread. Reactions on them aren’t imported.

In Discord, importing needs Read Message History.

Mirror moderation

Turn on Mirror moderation to let moderation cross the bridge in both directions. Hiding a relayed message in Colibri then removes its original on the other service, and messages that moderators there remove are hidden in Colibri.

The bridge needs permission to remove other people’s messages on the other service. In Discord, that’s Manage Messages. Moderation lists what crosses in each direction.

Pause a bridge

Turn off Relay messages to stop the bridge without losing your links. The bridge can’t write anything while paused, and messages posted in the meantime aren’t relayed later. Turn it back on to resume.

Disconnect a bridge

Select Disconnect on the bridge and confirm. The bridge stops relaying immediately and its registration is deleted. Messages it already relayed stay in your channels.

To connect the same bridge again, start a new pairing from the other service.